Private banker income
June 28th, 2007
Based on a Straits Times report, the annual income of a local private banker can range from “no more than $200,000″ to “between $600,000 to $1 million.”
Based on information from salary.com, the 75th-percentile Private Banker (junior level) in America makes US$67,188 in base salary, and US$73,008 in bonuses.
From this page in efinancialcareers.sg:
“A junior could expect to earn S$70k to S$100k in overall compensation; a mid-level banker might earn S$100k to S$160k; while the most experienced candidates could earn around S$500k.”
Some interesting comments on this other page in efinancialcareers.sg.
6-figure a month for private banker? | Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore Says:
July 21st, 2007 at 11:24 pm
[...] in today’s Straits Times, it’s mentioned that graduates are “rushing” into private banking and wealth [...]
terence Says:
September 25th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I have access to private bankers since I am a DBS Treasures member. Not that I am rich but as I always tells my friends, either you have a million or you owe a million, and I fall within the 2nd category. From what I see, every few months, the name of my private banker changes. Private bankers are basically highly paid sales persons – not an easy job and often requires rear end kissing of stuck up clients.
Anonymous Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Sorry to burst your bubble, man… but DBS Treasures is hardly private banking. DBS Treasures/UOB Privilege/HSBC Premier/Citigold/etc are basically marketing ploys by the bank to let middle class folks with a paltry $200k feel good about themselves so that they will buy stupid products like DBS High Note 5. At the end of the day, you’re treated just like any other customer. Did you get free F1 tickets and a Ritz-Carlton suite from DBS Treasures? I didn’t think so… True private banking is reserved only for the elite.
5m10y Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Private banking with local banks require a minimum of S$1m. With banks like UBS, the minimum is US$2m.
Those are _entry level_ private banking customers and not even yet the “real” elite.
terence Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Well, you have your own special queue, special rooms where you can sip copy or surf the net, special airport lounge and taxi fare from the airport paid by DBS.
DBS Treasures is not for the super-rich league but one step above the common people. Someone call Treasures not private banking but premier banking – to show that it is below true private banking.
adiemuso Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
terence, its fine to feel good but dun let your head get too big. it looks ridiculous.
do u noe? if you are jux the another 1 out of the 10,000 accounts on your “private/personal/premier/priviledge banker portfolio” you are not that great.
anyway, if you were, you wouldnt be here in this forum. most likely browsing the net for the next pagani or phantom…
5m10y Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Eh, come on lah. Terence already said that it’s not for the super-rich league what. He also said it wasn’t called private banking but premier banking.
He was just sharing with us the benefits of being in DBS Treasures, which personally I find interesting to know.
So what’s the problem?
Wealth Journey Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Yup.. I have accounts with 3 pte banks. (1 Raffles Quay, 1 near Marina Square, 1 at BATTERy road). So far, the only difference I see is that there’s 2 dedicated people serving me – 1 investment advisor and 1 banker.
I must say I am entry level as I don’t get tickets to events like F1 etc.. Only get invites to annual dinners or product launches etc…
To actually get more previlege, I guess you need to have at least us$10mil in 1 account. I split my portfolio among 3 accounts as I dont wish to be locked into 1 bank’s pt of view. But the negatives is that you become entry level.
Will work hard to become a us$10mil account holder! Gambatte!
5m10y Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Huuuyeah!
Wishing you a speedy journey there 
Wealth Journey Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Agree with Adiemuso..
No matter what level of wealth you think you are at, you should not believe you are above the others or get your head too bloated.
When I was at retail level.. I looked up to priority..
When I was at priority level.. I looked up to pte banking…
When I am at pte banking level.. I looked up to becoming the next higher pte banking level.. (mid-tier US$10mil)…
If I become the mid-tier … I will looked up to becoming the next level (us$30mil)…
And believe it or not.. you can still look up ..
There are always tons and tons of people earning obscence amt of money out there… It is truly a humbling experience..
Wealth Journey Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
5m10y:
same to you too! Read your blog and I must say I am a little threatened by the competition… haha
Wealth Journey Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
5m10y:
oh sorry.. want to replace the haha with :p
felt the “haha” might be construed by others to be laughing down on the competition…
5m10y Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
No worries… I compete with you on passion only lah, my net worth nowhere near yours liao
I’m looking up to priority now… so taxi fare from airport can let DBS pay… hahaha…
adiemuso Says:
September 29th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
5M10Y,
theres nothing wrong to share your experiences and thoughts.
however, this website is being viewed by many who needs an answer, and might be desperately looking for a decent advice.
you can be whoever you want to be on the internet world, but as a responsible person, i feel that we have to put certain things into perspective.
imagine if i had written that banks pay for my fine dining bills and F1 hospitality EVERYTIME, and it goes unchalllenged, would you be misled into thinking that that is the norm?
likewise, if you had been calling a spade a spade, theres no reason to worry about being challenged.
and im not being personal by the way. no offense, just my two cents worth.
5m10y Says:
October 6th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Adiemuso, that’s what I was saying. Terence already said that DBS Treasures wasn’t real private banking, and he did share the benefits of DBS Treasures, which I found interesting, like the taxi fare gettting paid by DBS Treasures and whatnot.
This is all written communication, so your interpretation might be different from mine. But never did I sense Terence was boasting, so I didn’t see why the putting down was necessary.
Anyway, peace, man. I won’t continue this particular conversation–it’s getting nowhere and I think it’s just a matter of different interpretations between yours and mine.
adiemuso Says:
October 6th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
no worries, bad times are coming…doesnt helps to have a bad time here in the forum too…cheers and brace yourselves..
Paul Tan Says:
October 7th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Let me share on what I know about DBS Treasures and DBS Private Banking (PB). I was previously at DBS Treasures customer and then some years ago the same relationship manager from Treasure (RM) has been promoted/transferred (which I do not know) to Private banking and he bring me along too.
In term of service of course PB has more products, which normally you do not get at Treasure, but there are alot of checks on where you got the funds from until you fed up as you are being watched.
Every wire transfer need to tell reason of transfer. I am not sure other PB also do the same or only DBS is being more particular.
5m10y Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Would be interesting to have other PB clients sharing too. Anyone?
Wealth Journey Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Before i selected my pte banks.. i did go to DBS pte bank..
Anyway, all banks required checks on the initial fund transfer and background check on how come you have so much money.
It’s just to ensure it’s not those money laundering stuff…
But mine was fairly straightforward.. Just show them evidence of why I have the money.. they write an initial report.. open an account and after that.. the other transfers will not attract any more queries.
Terence Says:
December 30th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Because of some problems, I am not a Treasures customer anymore but just last month, had the Treasures experience under my wife’s membership.
At Changi airport, there are special lounges at T2 and T3 (T1 -not sure). You can have a free dinner there which is not bad. When we returned from Europe, they had special Treasures limousines (Mercedes E class) chaffeur us back home for free. The cars are painted in black and brown colours and are very distintive so it attracts attention from us, which you may or may not like. The driver told me that there are 10 limousines.
Terence Says:
December 30th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I just threw away an Business Times article that I had cut about a year ago. This article states that a bank expects to earn about 1% of its assets under private banking management. Therefore, if you have clients with assets of $100m. the bank hopes to earn $1m. Of this, about 15-30% will be used to pay the private bankers’s salary.
On another point, my wife is complaining about her relationship managers (RMs)with a major local bank. She says that they are so new and make mistakes with simple transactions. Often, the attending clerks know more than them. The problem as mentioned is that there is such a high turnover.
Vexed Says:
January 19th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Treasures is actually not bad, they did not lose so much for me. Only got caught in Aussie.
The worse I heard from my friends is an Australian bank CBA that morphed in something called Schroders (British) now.
They have got not even a basic equity linked product or fixed income to buy.
They kept trying to sell and charge 4% of their so called in house portfolio which they say is down 10-15%. Kept saying that that they performed better than others!
I find the service at Julius Baer not bad.
I am just a USD3mln guy, small.
Goodie Says:
February 21st, 2009 at 1:04 am
Meh. DBS Treasures stopped their airport limousine service already. Just found out today. Pissed off lah. Time to shop around…
wealthjourney Says:
February 21st, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Vexed ,
What type of account do you have in Julius Baer?
And what is the AUM charge?
Thinking of shifting out of CS & UBS into other..but every other big name out there have been losing terrible amount of money.. I also donno where is a safe place to keep money anymore..
Goodie Says:
February 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
wealthjourney, which currencies do you keep your wealth in? I am conflicted. Thinking of shifting some to AUD (mostly mine is in SGD now).
CS is doing a lot better than UBS though, I can say that much…
6 yrs in Pte Banking Says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Guys let me give you an inside STORY on how pte banks in Spore works. Firstly im not a pte banker but a product specialist.
First of all, u might be surprised, Spore is the 2nd largest pte wealth centre in the world as @ 30.06.09 and we are contributing ~6-8% of the world’s offshore pte wealth. CHF tops @ ~16-18%.
N most Sporeans’ a/cs here are are not the “elite” type… mostly just ikan bilis for the pte banks. i have seen ten digit figures from middle eastern, latin americans n Indonesians. Infact, our govt is also trying very hard to become the CHF in Asia, safe, fun (f1, casino, universal studios etc) n even creative tax breaks. The last 10yrs have been growing like crazy… up untill last yr’s crisis. Look at jim rogers or even jet li etc.
Now, would you really make $ via pte banking a/cs? Most likely not as your PB has a big target to meet… so most pro. u would be trading more than u actually need so conflict of interests. So not making $$ then why pte banking a/cs… its becuz in Spore this industry has not mature yet. Infact in CHF, ~80% of the wealth there is still held in small boutique private banks so im reckoning these small local boutique family office kind of shop would be set up in the future where the rich would have the ultimate personalized service with $$ being managed as what the money mangers would do for their own $$.
Consistence returns yr on yr with good financial planning is the key to grow REAL wealth!!!
Cheers
Arbitrage Says:
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Hi 6 yrs in Pte Banking, I’m from bank too. Would like to find out more about Pte Banking from you. Don’t mind emailing me at courriezmoi@hotmail.com?
Thanks alot.
Curious Says:
March 15th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Hi 6 yrs in Pte Banking,
I am curious how much a product specialist in an international bank based in Singapore gets as remuneration. Would you be able to give rough figures? How much is fixed and how much is bonus?
Poor but surviving Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
so to be a treasures DBS member, u need 200k?
So wat if u had 200k, became a member, then u withdraw 1k for personal use, becomes 199k, do u get dropped out?
Curious Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
does it matter you still have home loan more than 200k unpaid but put in 200k?
actually, do you guys think becoming such members help you become richer faster for eg, through more investments not open to public? or lose more money only?
Poor but surviving Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
i dun hv 200k to begin with so cant comment :p
to curious Says:
March 18th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
more likely to lose more money, esp if you are weak at rejecting pretty girls
despite that, such memberships are kinda prestigious to some people.
Curious Says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
i see … the prestige part does not matter to me, but if it is able to help me increase my wealth, then i will target to join once i accumulate enough…
my wealth honestly, not that big that need help to manage…
tree Says:
March 20th, 2010 at 2:14 am
hmm, UOB doubled their entry criteria for Private Banking…
are millionaire numbers growing fast in Singapore?
plant Says:
March 20th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
so UOB previously accepted people with just SGD1mio of investibles? they are playing catchup then, unlikely due to increasing millionaires in Singapore.
MH Says:
June 10th, 2010 at 11:45 am
DBS Treasures now require at least SGD350K to open an account. looks like the wealthy are getting richer.
Anonymous Says:
March 31st, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Being a DBS Treasures member is nothing spectacular.
Each Treasures relationship manager probably has 100-300 names under his portfolio, how special do you think you can be to have that many people to serve to by just one person.
Natboi Says:
March 11th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
I was at a DBS branch yesterday morning and was told that to become a DBS Treasures member, one needs to have 250k and not 350k.